#lousianaflood2016

Yesterday I woke up, excited to know school had been cancelled, knowing I'd get to spend the day with the boys. Last night, I went to bed, exhausted, emotionally drained but so thankful for the "little" things in life. Because yesterday there was a historic flood that overpowered SE Louisiana. Because yesterday I saw something live and in person that I could never wrap my head around just by watching it on TV. Because I was part of a church family that helped those who could not help themselves. Because our boys ministered to people more with their young lives than most adults could do. Because we lost some but not as much as so many others. Because we were able to help when no one else could. Because we saw mass destruction that the media will never be able to get you to understand with news broadcasts and interviews. Because friends were stranded and had no idea what to save first. Because my husband was "Superman". Because we were a team.
When waters started to rise, Rob got antsy. He wanted to help. So we got in his truck and headed to one of our church family's house who was starting to take in water. Along the way I was floored by the amount of water already seeping into homes. After meeting up with another church family who had loaded their SUV with sandbags, we put them around the base of the doors, hoping and praying it'd help. Then we got a call that my co-worker, a single mom who has 2 teenage daughters (who are my students) and a young son, was taking in water. She is strong and didn't want help but that didn't stop us with meeting up with 2 more families and heading her way. Rob and another guy unloaded the flat bottom boat that we had brought and filled it with sandbags. After some unnecessary drama (some drunk guy tried to get in Rob's truck to fight him for "pushing water into his house"), Rob and our friend Scott were able to sandbag my co-worker's house. From there we reconvened to see who needed help next because, at that point, so many people were asking for sandbags. We decided to help our children church's pastor and his family. He had been so busy helping another church family  that he didn't realize that the water was too close to his house until it was too late. A group of men pulled the boat full of sandbags to his house and then we were going to call it a day because of the mandatory curfew that was quickly approaching. Just as we were loading up the boat and getting ready to head home, our pastor called and asked if we could come get him and take him to the church to sandbag because we were the only ones with a big enough truck. Long story short, we did what we could. On our second trip back we took a route around the church that would be our demise. Rob's truck, which had handled so much all day long, couldn't withstand the rising water. Thankfully, we were able to pull it to dry land but not before it had been 3/4th submerged under water. As sad as we were at the loss of his beloved truck, we know it could be so much worse. We are still in our house. We slept in our own beds last night. We enjoyed a hot breakfast this morning. We have running hot water. But, most importantly, we are alive!
Here are some things that stick out to me about yesterday:
* Seeing a guy wade through waist deep water, carrying his dog to a boat.
* People paddling boats and canoes to houses to help with sandbags.
* Rob and several men wading through deep water to help people.
* Me wading through chest deep sewage water without thinking about what I was walking in.
* Watching Rob's truck being "towed" by a bus onto dry land.
* A group of men piled in the back of a pick up, riding together, to help.
* Being so incredibly, bone chilling cold. In Louisiana. In August
* The boys NEVER complaining despite being tired and not eating more than a bag of chips since breakfast.
* P eager to help, lugging a sand bag to his dad's truck, knowing he was part of a team.
* The water quickly rising in Rob's truck while we tried to save what we could and get to safety.
* 4 families working together, forming a team, organizing ways to help people in need.

And the thing I hope I never forget happened at the end of a very long day......P happily sat in our friend's pick up, singing a praise song at the top of his lungs, knowing that there was still so much to be thankful for.